Annea Lockwood, born in New Zealand and living in the
United States, is perhaps most infamously known for her Piano Transplants
(1969-72), in which defunct pianos were variously burned, drowned in a
shallow pond in Amarillo, Texas, and partially buried in an English garden.
During the 1960s she collaborated frequently with sound-poets, choreographers
and visual artists and created works like Glass Concert (1967),
in which a variety of complex sounds were drawn from industrial glass
products and shards, and then presented as an audio-visual theater piece.
During the 1970s and 80s, Lockwood turned her attention to work focused
on environmental sounds, life-narratives in installations, and performance
works using low-tech devices like her Sound Ball, a foam-covered
ball containing six small speakers and a radio receiver. She has also
composed for acoustic instruments and voices, frequently incorporating
electronics and visual elements. Thousand Year Dreaming (1991)
is scored for four didjeridus, conches, frame drums, winds, and trombones,
and incorporates slides of the Lascaux cave paintings; Monkey Trips
(1995), for an improvising sextet, draws on our common, every-day experiences
of various mind states; Ear-Walking Woman (1996), for pianist Lois
Svard, invites the pianist to discover a range of sounds available inside
the instrument, using rocks, bubble-wrap, bowl gongs, and other implements;
and Floating World (1999) weaves together recordings made by friends
in places which are spiritually important to them, ranging from the mountains
of New Zealand to the New York Public Library. Much of her music has been
recorded on the Lovely Music, XI, ¿WhatNext?/OO Discs, Rattle (New
Zealand), Harmonia Mundi, and CRI record labels.